Rape of the Lock and A Key to the Lock

Alexander Pope

Description

When Lord Petre had the effrontery of cutting off a lock of Lady Arabella Fermor's hair, a veritable war erupted between the two noble families. A mutual friend, saddened by their estrangement, asked Alexander Pope, then a young poet, to write a poem about it, in order to make a joke of it and "laugh them together again". But the result - which in its ingenuity and poetical brilliance reaches peaks of epic sublime - concealed darker and more dangerous undertones that unleashed an even greater storm between the parties involved - and among the whole literary world of the time.As Belinda glides along the Thames admired for her beauty and the crafty Baron schemes to take his prize, a host of supernatural beings - elfs, sylphs, gnomes - dance around them to avoid the impending doom, in what is Pope's crowning poetical achievement and perhaps the greatest satirical poem ever written. Included in this volume are the original two-canto version of The Rape of the Lock and Pope's hilarious mock-interpretation of the poem as a seditious work, A Key to the Lock.

Informations

• Publié par: Alma Books
• Date de parution: 21 juin 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780714548883
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Rape of the Lock
followed by
A Key to the Lock
Alexander Pope


ALMA CLASSICS


alma classics an imprint of
alma books ltd 3 Castle Yard Richmond Surrey TW10 6TF United Kingdom www.almaclassics.com
The Rape of the Lock first published in 1712 A Key to the Lock first published in 1714 This edition first published by Alma Classics Ltd in 2018
Notes and Afterword © Alessandro Gallenzi, 2018
Cover design: Will Dady
Printed in the United Kingdom by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
isbn : 978-1-84749-726-0
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher.


Contents
The Rape of the Lock
A Key to the Lock
Appendix: The Rape of the Lock
(1712 Version)
Notes
Afterword by Alessandro Gallenzi


The Rape of the Lock
A heroi-comical poem in five cantos
Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos,
sed juvat hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis. 1
martial


To Mrs Arabella Fermor 2
Madam,
I t will be in vain to deny that I have some regard for this piece, since I dedicate it to you. Yet you may bear me witness it was intended only to divert a few young ladies who have good sense and good humour enough to laugh not only at their sex’s little unguarded follies, but at their own. But, as it was communicated with the air of a secret, it soon found its way into the world. An imperfect copy having been offered to a bookseller, you had the good nature for my sake to consent to the publication of one more correct. This I was forced to before I had executed half my design, for the machinery was entirely wanting to complete it.
The machinery, Madam, is a term invented by the critics to signify that part which the deities, angels or demons are made to act in a poem. For the ancient poets are in one respect like many modern ladies: let an action be never so trivial in itself, they always make it appear of the utmost importance. These machines I determined to raise on a very new and odd foundation, the Rosicrucian doctrine of spirits. 3
I know how disagreeable it is to make use of hard words before a lady, but ’tis so much the concern of a poet to have his works understood – and particularly by your sex – that you must give me leave to explain two or three difficult terms.
The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The best account I know of them is in a French book called Le Comte de Gabalis , 4 which both in its title and size is so like a novel that many of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these gentlemen, the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call sylphs, gnomes, nymphs and salamanders. The gnomes, or demons of earth, delight in mischief, but the sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are the best-conditioned creatures imaginable. For they say any mortals may enjoy the most intimate familiarities with these gentle spirits, upon a condition very easy to all true adepts: an inviolate preservation of chastity.
As to the following cantos, all the passages of them are as fabulous as the vision at the beginning or the transformation at the end (except the loss of your hair, which I always mention with reverence). The human persons are as fictitious as the airy ones, and the character of Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in nothing but in beauty.
If this poem had as many graces as there are in your person or in your mind, yet I could never hope it should pass through the world half so uncensured as you have done. But let its fortune be what it will – mine is happy enough to have given me this occasion of assuring you that I am, with the truest esteem, Madam, Your most obedient,
humble servant,
a. pope


Canto I
W hat dire offence from am’rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I sing. This verse to Caryll, 5 Muse, is due; This, ev’n Belinda may vouchsafe to view: Slight is the subject, but not so the praise, If she inspire and he approve my lays. Say what strange motive, Goddess, could compel A well-bred lord t’ assault a gentle belle? Oh, say what stranger cause, yet unexplored, Could make a gentle belle reject a lord? In tasks so bold can little men engage, And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty rage? Sol through white curtains shot a tim’rous ray, And oped those eyes that must eclipse the day; Now lapdogs give themselves the rousing shake, And sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake: Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knocked the ground, And the pressed watch returned a silver sound. Belinda still her downy pillow pressed, Her guardian sylph prolonged the balmy rest. ’Twas he had summoned to her silent bed The morning dream that hovered o’er her head. A youth, more glitt’ring than a birthnight beau, (That ev’n in slumber caused her cheek to glow) Seemed to her ear his winning lips to lay, And thus in whispers said, or seemed to say: “Fairest of mortals, thou distinguished care Of thousand bright inhabitants of air! If e’er one vision touched thy infant thought, Of all the nurse and all the priest have taught, Of airy elves by moonlight shadows seen, The silver token, and the circled green – Or virgins visited by angel powers, With golden crowns and wreaths of heav’nly flowers – Hear and believe! thy own importance know, Nor bound thy narrow views to things below. Some secret truths, from learned pride concealed, To maids alone and children are revealed: What though no credit doubting wits may give? The fair and innocent shall still believe. Know then, unnumbered spirits round thee fly, The light militia of the lower sky; These, though unseen, are ever on the wing, Hang o’er the box, and hover round the Ring. 6 Think what an equipage thou hast in air, And view with scorn two pages and a chair. As now your own, our beings were of old, And once enclosed in woman’s beauteous mould; Thence, by a soft transition, we repair From earthly vehicles to these of air. Think not, when woman’s transient breath is fled, That all her vanities at once are dead: Succeeding vanities she still regards, And though she plays no more, o’erlooks the cards. Her joy in gilded chariots when alive, And love of ombre, 7 after death survive. For when the fair in all their pride expire, To their first elements their souls retire: The sprites of fiery termagants in flame Mount up, and take a salamander’s name. Soft, yielding minds to water glide away, And sip with nymphs their elemental tea. The graver prude sinks downward to a gnome, In search of mischief still on earth to roam. The light coquettes in sylphs aloft repair, And sport and flutter in the fields of air. “Know further yet: whoever fair and chaste Rejects mankind is by some sylph embraced, For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease Assume what sexes and what shapes they please. What guards the purity of melting maids, In courtly balls and midnight masquerades, Safe from the treach’rous friend, the daring spark, The glance by day, the whisper in the dark, When kind occasion prompts their warm desires, When music softens, and when dancing fires? ’Tis but their sylph: the wise celestials know, Though ‘honour’ is the word with men below. “Some nymphs there are too conscious of their face, For life predestined to the gnomes’ embrace. These swell their prospects and exalt their pride, When offers are disdained and love denied. Then gay ideas crowd the vacant brain, While peers and dukes, and all their sweeping train, And garters, stars and coronets appear, And in soft sounds ‘Your Grace’ salutes their ear. ’Tis these that early taint the female soul, Instruct the eyes of young coquettes to roll, Teach infant cheeks a bidden blush to know, And little hearts to flutter at a beau. “Oft, when the world imagine women stray, The sylphs through mystic mazes guide their way, Through all the giddy circle they pursue, And old impertinence expel by new. What tender maid but must a victim fall To one man’s treat, but for another’s ball? When Florio speaks, what virgin could withstand, If gentle Damon did not squeeze her hand? With varying vanities, from ev’ry part, They shift the moving toyshop of their heart –
Where wigs with wigs, with sword knots sword knots strive,
Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive. This erring mortals levity may call – Oh, blind to truth! the sylphs contrive it all. “Of these am I, who thy protection claim, A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name. Late, as I ranged the crystal wilds of air, In the clear mirror of thy ruling star 8 I saw, alas, some dread event impend, Ere to the main this morning sun descend. But Heav’n reveals not what, or how, or where – Warned by thy sylph, oh pious maid, beware! This to disclose is all thy guardian can. Beware of all – but most beware of man!” He said – when Shock, who thought she slept too long, Leapt up and waked his mistress with his tongue. ’Twas then, Belinda, if report say true, Thy eyes first opened on a billet-doux; Wounds, charms and ardours were no sooner read, But all the vision vanished from thy head. And now, unveiled, the toilet stands displayed, Each silver vase in mystic order laid. First, robed in white, the nymph intent adores, With head uncovered, the Cosmetic Powers. A heav’nly image in the glass appears: To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears – Th’ inferior priestess, at her altar’s side, Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride. Unnumbered treasures ope at once – and here The various off’rings of the world appear